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THE FAME 

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



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BY 

PHILIP JOSEPH 



THE FAME 

OF 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



ORATION 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE EUEPIA DEBATING SOCIETY 

OF THE MOLINE HIGH SCHOOL 

APRIL 16, 1904 

BY 



PHILIP JOSEPH 

Class of '04 



MOLINE, ILLINOIS 
1905 









Published for Private Distribution 

by Courtesy of 

Joseph B. Oakleaf 

1905 



Fifty Copies Printed 

Gift 
Publls' 



ttlK&fl & CO. 

Printer-. 
Moline, Illinois 



The Fame of Abraham Lincoln. 



THE FAME OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



WHEN in the year 1789 the genius of the American people, 
embodied in the minds of Alexander Hamilton and James 
Madison, framed that constitution so justly titled the " finest speci- 
men of constructive statesmanship the world has ever seen," there 
were many expressions of doubt as to the stability of such a form 
of government. 

Indeed, it seemed preposterous that separate states could live 
peacefully side by side, settling disputes in common and being loyal 
to each other under this mutual form of government, but the wisdom 
of the heroes of the revolution convinced the people that at least a 
trial was advisable. The result was satisfactory and through sixty- 
. five years the United States of America developed into a flourishing 
nation, which braved foreign perils with the greatest success. 

At the end of that time, however, an internal enemy had developed, 
more to be feared than the greatest of foes from without. The insti- 
tution of slavery had grown to be a serious public menace. It was 
no longer a question of Can we withstand an attack from without ? 
but, Is that document what it is represented to be ; can it hold us 
together? And although the fate of the negro race was the cause 
which led directly to that terrible strife, it was by no means the 
vital question. It was not, Is slavery right or wrong? but Can we 
save the Union? 

How kin fought kin in the bloodiest of battles for nearly four 
years ; how thousands and thousands of lives were sacrificed upon 

5 



both sides, and how finally the Union was saved, the American 
people know full well. The millions of brave soldiers and sailors — 
North and South — blue and gray — dead and living — who fought each 
other upon those well-trod battlefields, command our deepest respect 
and most fond a'dmiration. But among all these stands forth one 
figure as a pilot of a great ship. A figure that reminds us of Wash- 
ington, but seems nearer to us ; one who came from among us, "new 
birth of a new soil— The First American"— ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

In estimating the fame of the great "war president," we must bear 
two things in mind. First, contrary to the impression of many 
of the American people, even at this late date, it is not because he 
emancipated the slaves that Lincoln's name is so deeply carved 
upon the hearts of the people of this nation, but because he so val- 
iantly guided the ship of state through those four trying years of seces- 
sion, and saved the Union from inevitable destruction. Secondly, 
his fame rests solely upon what he made of himself and those traits 
of his character, the presence and development of which we can trace 
through every period of his life. 

Born in a lowly hut, with a shiftless father ; with a mother who 
displayed but a few of her son's noble traits, although worthy of the 
statement that to her "he owed all he ever was or hoped to be," the 
boy, Abraham, "did not lure by any cheat of birth." He lived in a 
wilderness, with hard labor from sunrise to sunset; he had few com- 
panions, and the only six months of schooling ever received was 
gained in an old log school-house — but it was right here that despite 
his surroundings his honesty and integrity first showed forth when 
" Honest Abe " was asked to umpire this game or decide that dis- 
pute, and when that "store boy" walked so far to return the 
widow's change. 

Honesty is better than gold wherever found, but when it is sur- 
rounded by temptations its worth is doubled. In this regard there 
exists a mistake in the minds of the public which time alone can 
change. Which of the following is a household story, known to the 

6 




young American almost as soon as he has learned his alphabet? 
Compare the two: 

Upon my left I see a boy clad in the ancient colonial garb, a new 
sharp hatchet in his hand with which he has felled one of the most 
promising of a little grove of choice cherry trees. An angry father 
approaches: "Who chopped that tree down?" Firm and steady 
comes the answer, " I cannot tell a lie, father, I did it with my little 
hatchet." 

Are you familiar with that ? How often we have heard it. 

Upon my right I see a tall, lank, ungainly youth of eighteen or 
nineteen years, dressed in simple homespun. He has just given 
up the position of village postmaster, but still has in his possession 
sixteen dollars and some cents for which he has turned in an account, 
but for some reason or other the government has failed to make a 
demand for it. 

Several years have passed. 

In the meantime many hardships have been endured. Money has 
been scarce, and many times this lad has had to borrow from friends 
to keep his back covered with clothes. One day, unannounced, an 
agent of the government comes to his shabby little room with 
a bill for sixteen dollars. The young man goes to a trunk, pulls 
out an old brown stocking, from which roll the identical coins 
with which his New Salem neighbors had purchased stamps. 
How many of you knew that? Yet which is the greater test for 
honesty ? 

That is but one of the hundreds of stories and anecdotes of 
Lincoln's life, illustrating his traits of character, which today fill 
volumes, while stray ones repeatedly find their way to the press. 

We find in the next period of his life the same splendid qualities 
of manhood, even more strongly marked. 

It is not eloquence as a public speaker that in Lincoln's law 
career won fame for him, but the same sterling worth of his character. 
It is not that Lincoln could make his audience laugh and cry in the 

7 



same breath that enabled him to win the verdict in so many of his 
cases. He convinced the jury through his ever-present honesty, his 
clearness in portraying and stating whatever he wished to say, his 
skill in turning even' sentence and phrase into language so simple 
that all could understand, and his ability to tell and apply an anec- 
dote or story to almost any case with which he was concerned. 

The culmination of this period came in the famous Lincoln- 
Douglas debates delivered throughout this state in 1858. When 
Lincoln confided the contents of one of these speeches to a few of 
his closest friends for their criticism, they advised him, begged and 
implored him to omit the startling truths concerning slavery, 
for if he uttered them, they said, he was sure to be defeated for the 
senate. " I would rather," said he, " lose the election to the senate 
a dozen times with that in my speech, than be elected without it." 
As a politician. Lincoln stands forth an ideal, without a stain 
from contact with any corruption. He could face the truth with 
as much ease upon the platform as behind the counter. What 
politician of then or today had nobler aims than the author of the 
following wonU: 

"You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed 
these sacred principles. You may not only defeat me for the senate, 
but you may take me and put me to death. While pretending no 
indifference to earthly honors, I do claim to be actuated in this con- 
test by something higher than anxiety for office. I charge you to 
drop every paltry and insignificant thought for any man's success. 
It is nothing, I am nothing. Judge Douglas is nothing. But do 
not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity — the Declaration of 
American Independence." 

We will not tarry upon that famous convention in the Wigwam in 
Chicago in 1860, when to the surprise of everyone present, Abraham 
Lincoln was so enthusiastically nominated. But before passing 
to his career as president we will recall an incident in his early 
life which bears directly upon it. In 1831, when still a young 

8 



man, Lincoln took a trip down the Mississippi to New Orleans 
with a steamboat captain. While in the southern metropolis he 
saw a colored girl sold at auction. The scene filled his soul with 
indignation and horror. Turning to his companions he said, " Boys, 
if ever I get a chance to hit that institution I'll hit it hard." Thirty 
one years later the chance came ; the oath was kept, and 4,000,000 
slaves — men, women and children — were given liberty. 

Upon that day he undertook as a life work a task such as no man 
ever faced before, but although he went about this life work with 
enthusiasm, in the thickest smoke of battle, in the deepest problems 
of statecraft, not once did he let it swerve him from the duty of 
the moment. Although in his eyes nothing was meaner than 
slavery, he sent to his old friend, Horace Greeley, the following, 
which has been inscribed at the base of the famous Lincoln monu- 
ment in Chicago : 

" If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could 
at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there 
be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same 
time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object 
in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or 
destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves 
I would do it. If I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would 
do it, and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone 
I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, 
I do because I believe it helps to save the Union." 

In the words of one of his biographers, Lincoln would " sacrifice 
any thing, any man, all the resources at his command, tears, treas- 
ures, troops, the blood of the bravest men, his own strength, pride 
and ambitions, but he would not sacrifice the Union." 

In America there are two classes of men whose names endure : 
the men of great achievements — that is, founders of states and con- 
querors — and the great writers. Lincoln belongs to both. Upon both 
his renown is securely built. He would have been amazed when he 

9 



lived, had he been told that he was a man of letters, but this age 
has produced few greater writers. We mention here the judgment of 
one of his peers, Emerson, who said, "The phrases and passages in 
his letters, messages and speeches, hidden now by the very choice- 
ness of their application to the moment, are destined to a wide fame." 

In the most critical time of the war he was called to make a "few 
appropriate remarks" at the dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery. 
Edward Everett was to be the speaker of the day. The highly edu- 
cated man had the date changed for his convenience, and had over 
two months in which to prepare. Until two days before the appointed 
date, Lincoln did not know if he could spare the time for the trip. 
He wrote about half of his speech the night before, and finished it on 
the morning of the dedication. Under such conditions, Lincoln 
accomplished more in five minutes than the college man in two hours. 
Every clause, phrase, expression, and even word, in the Gettysburg 
speech has been carefully studied and found marvelous. Many times 
it has been said that every American school boy knows it. I do not 
believe that strictly true, but I am positive that every American 
school boy who does read it will never forget it. 

A brief review of Lincoln's life shows that his fame rests almost 
wholly upon the traits of his character which can be distinctly seen 
in every period of his life. As a boy he was faithful to his parents, 
honest and fair with his companions. As a young man he deserved 
every cent he pulled across the counter, and was still "Honest Abe" 
with the same integrity. As a lawyer and politician he was famed 
as a successful advocate, because of the same splendid traits. As 
a president, Abraham Lincoln, an honest man, abolished slavery, 
re-established the Union and saved the Republic. 

Such a life needed but the martyr's crown to make a fame so justly 
won, a fame everlasting. 

Upon April 14, 1865, for the first time in four years, the sun looked 
down upon a people no longer disrupted, upon a race no longer 
slaves. The boom of cannon had given place to cries of rejoicing, 

10 



and for twelve hours Abraham Lincoln was permitted to look upon 
the completion of his life work. Upon April 15 the end came, the 
story of which is known too well to need repetition. Sorrow more 
deep and universal than that which enveloped the land cannot be 
imagined. The next day — Sunday, April 16, 1865 — thirty-nine 
years ago today, the altar of Freedom received its noblest sacrifice. 
The grief of the nation can best be expressed in the words of Henry 
Ward Beecher : "Illinois, we took from your midst an untried man, 
and from among the people. We return him to you a mighty 
conqueror. Not thine any more, but the nation's ; not ours, but the 
world's. Give him place, ye prairies ! In the midst of this great 
continent his dust shall rest, a sacred treasure to myriads who shall 
pilgrim to that shrine to kindle anew their zeal and patriotism. Ye 
winds that move over the mighty of the west, chant his requiem. Ye 
behold a martyr whose blood, as so many articulate words, pleads 
for fidelity, for law and for liberty." 

In his heart or mind, each one of us finds something of his own. 
Each one of us claims him as his own ! Never will we, never will 
our children, never will the descendants of Americans forget the 
memory of the name of ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 




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